911 dispatcher helps dad deliver baby in Laguna Niguel home

March 5, 2014

Updated March 6, 2014 11:07 a.m.

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Keith Arthur holds his newborn daughter, Colette, at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills. Keith called 911 at 9:40 a.m. Wednesday to report that his wife, Katherine, had started giving birth and they didn't think they could make it to the hospital. By the time paramedics arrived from the Orange County Fire Authority at 9:44 a.m. Colette had been born. OCFA dispatcher Brodie Lafebvre talked Keith through the delivery. PAUL BERSEBACH, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Keith and Katherine Arthur hold their newborn daughter Colette at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills. Keith called 911 at 9:40 am on Wednesday as Katherine began giving birth and they didn't think they could make it to the hospital. By the time paramedics arrived from the Orange County Fire Authority at 9:44 am Colette had been born. OCFA dispatcher Brodie Lafebvre talked Keith through the delivery. PAUL BERSEBACH, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Brodie Lafebvre, a 911 dispatcher at Orange County Fire Authority dispatch center in Irvine, is all smiles after he talked a man through helping his wife deliver their baby in their Laguna Niguel home early Wednesday. KEN STEINHARDT, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Keith and Katherine Arthur talk about delivering their daughter Colette in a bath tub at their Laguna Niguel home. Keith called 911 at 9:40 am on Wednesday to report that his wife had started giving birth and they didn't think they could make it to the hospital. By the time paramedics arrived from the Orange County Fire Authority at 9:44 am Colette had been born. OCFA dispatcher Brodie Lafebvre talked Keith through the delivery. They are recovering at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center. PAUL BERSEBACH, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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Keith and Katherine Arthur talk about delivering their daughter Colette in a bath tub at their Laguna Niguel home. Keith called 911 at 9:40 am on Wednesday to report that his wife had started giving birth and they didn't think they could make it to the hospital. By the time paramedics arrived from the Orange County Fire Authority at 9:44 am Colette had been born. OCFA dispatcher Brodie Lafebvre talked Keith through the delivery. They are recovering at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center. PAUL BERSEBACH, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

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A couple delivered their baby girl in the bathtub of their Laguna Niguel home after the woman's water broke as they were preparing to leave for the hospital. BROOKE EDWARDS STAGGS, STAFF

Keith Arthur holds his newborn daughter, Colette, at Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in Laguna Hills. Keith called 911 at 9:40 a.m. Wednesday to report that his wife, Katherine, had started giving birth and they didn't think they could make it to the hospital. By the time paramedics arrived from the Orange County Fire Authority at 9:44 a.m. Colette had been born. OCFA dispatcher Brodie Lafebvre talked Keith through the delivery.PAUL BERSEBACH, STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER

LAGUNA NIGUEL – The Arthurs were planning a natural birth for their baby girl, Colette. They just didn’t expect it to be quite this natural.

Katherine and Keith Arthur were in the garage of their Laguna Niguel home Wednesday morning, getting ready to leave for the hospital, when Katherine’s water broke. Katherine, 29, said she felt a lot of pressure, but nothing like the pain she felt before she gave birth to her first three children.

Her husband asked if she wanted him to drive to Saddleback Memorial Medical Center as they’d planned for the baby’s March 19 due date. Katherine turned to him and said, “We aren't going anywhere.”

Keith helped his wife back into their home, settling her with blankets and pillows on the floor of the closest bathroom as he called 911. (Audio file of call)

Dispatcher Brodie Lefebvre answered the phone at 9:40 a.m. Lefebvre was about an hour into his shift when he took Keith’s call.

Lefebvre – who has eight children, including two adopted from Congo – talked Keith through what to do.

“I can see the head,” Keith can be heard saying on the 911 recording.

“Gentle pressure on the head, but don’t push on it,” Lefebvre responds.

About a minute later, Colette was born.

“I have the baby. I have the baby,” Keith says. “Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh.”

Soon, Lefebvre is coaching Keith to wrap the baby in clean towels and keep her warm, letting him know rescuers are close by.

“He was extremely calm and did exactly what I told him to do,” Lefebvre, 39, said. “I was able to be there with him and draw on my own experience as a father in the delivery room and keep him calm.”

Keith said he really didn’t have time to think, though he said he knew what to tell Lefebvre from years of watching the TV show “Rescue 911” growing up.

Katherine stayed completely quiet. She’d been training for weeks in hypnotherapy, she said, planning for her first natural delivery.

“I was just able to turn off my fear,” she said. “This was my easiest birth.”

When paramedics arrived just four minutes after the call had come in, Keith was holding Colette, wrapped in a blanket with the umbilical cord still attached, Capt. Steve Concialdi with the Orange County Fire Authority said. Rescuers checked the mother and the baby, and both were in good health. They warmed the baby a bit more and then let the father cut the umbilical cord.

“There’s something about knowing I was the first person who welcomed her into the world rather than a doctor,” Keith, 32, said. He later joked about his Little League training, saying, “I did play catcher in fifth grade.”

Colette and her mother were taken to Saddleback Memorial in Laguna Hills, where they were resting comfortably Wednesday afternoon.

Neighbors who saw the ambulance on their usually quiet street rushed to find out what was going on. As the Arthurs and their new baby were taken to the hospital, a neighbor stayed with the couple’s 18-month-old daughter, who slept through the entire ordeal while her 8-year-old brother and 5-year-old sister were at school. Soon, family members arrived from Riverside to relieve the neighbor.

Melinda Ferraro, who goes to church with the Arthurs and lives up the street, was on her way home from the gym when she saw the chaos unfolding. She came by shortly after the birth to help care for the kids and help clean up.

Ferraro’s sister also didn’t make it to the hospital and delivered one of her children in her home. It’s a scary experience, Ferraro said, but she’s happy that both deliveries had happy endings.

Colette weighed in at a healthy 7 pounds and is 19½ inches long, with a head full of dark brown hair. She was a calm baby in the womb, Katherine said, and stayed calm despite her unusual entry into the world.

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